Adding solid handling to liquid state thioridazine drugs

Abstract

Solid state drugs encounter issues related to polymorphism (conversion into different crystalline structures with different reactivity) or low bioavailability (low aqueous solubility due to their hydrophobic nature). Converting these solid drugs into an ionic liquid state will address the indicated issues and add new, more favorable properties such as multifunctionality. However, liquid state drugs can be highly viscous, leading to difficulties in handling. Supported ionic liquid phases (SILP) strategy (i.e., adsorption of a compound on the surface of a solid support) adds a solid handling advantage to the highly viscous liquid state compounds. Thioridazine is a solid state phenothiazine pharmaceutical that exhibits side effects such as cardiac arrythmia. By combining thioridazine cation with lidocaine cation (an antiarrhythmic drug) and docusate anion into a new liquid state compound, namely a double salt ionic liquid (DSIL), these side effects may be eliminated. However, the issue related to the high viscosity remains. This issue can be eliminated and the new drug can be delivered into the body using SILP strategy. This presentation shows our effort towards the formation of new SILP materials by adsorbing/loading thioridazine DSILs onto hydrophilic silica solid support. Silica was used for its known eco-friendly properties in medicinal delivery. Through an adjustment of amount of the drug loaded on silica, several loadings were investigated.